Transit Worker Fatally Struck by Subway Train in Brooklyn

A transit worker was struck and killed by a subway train in Brooklyn on Thursday morning while he was working on the tracks, officials said.

Three workers were on the southbound tracks near the Fort Hamilton Parkway station to set up warning lights for a construction zone when a G train hit two of the workers around 12:05 a.m., officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. The train was traveling around a curve and pinned the two workers, the police said.

One of the workers, Louis Gray, 53, of Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, officials said. Another worker, Jeffrey Fleming, 49, was injured and taken to New York Methodist Hospital, also in Brooklyn, where he was listed in serious but stable condition on Thursday.

The transportation authority is investigating what caused the accident — the first time a worker has been killed by a train since 2013, union leaders said.

“We extend our deep-felt condolences today,” Veronique Hakim, the president of New York City Transit, the arm of the transportation authority that operates the subways, said in a statement. “The safety of all our workers is paramount, and we are in the process of investigating this tragic incident.”

Officials ordered a “safety stand-down,” halting nonemergency track work on Thursday morning, Ms. Hakim said. It was not clear on Thursday evening when the shutdown might be lifted and maintenance work could resume.

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Louis Gray

Transit workers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the city, said John Samuelsen, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents subway and bus workers. In an email to staff members, he urged union leaders to emphasize safety procedures to workers.

“This tragedy highlights the extreme danger transit workers are in every time they step on the tracks,” Mr. Samuelsen said.

Both workers were conductors and longtime transit employees. Mr. Gray had worked at the authority since 2001, and Mr. Fleming joined the agency in 1999. The men were setting up the warning lights in the subway tunnel between the Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Avenue stations south of Prospect Park.

The authority often completes subway maintenance at nights and on weekends to avoid disrupting service during rush hours. Among other safety procedures, employees set up warning lights to let train operators know they are approaching a work zone.

In the past decade, three subway workers have been killed by trains in New York City. A signal maintainer was killed by an E train in Queens in 2013 when he fell from a catwalk area above the tracks. In 2007, two workers were killed by subway trains in separate accidents in the same week, prompting the authority to temporarily suspend maintenance projects. That year, the authority created a track safety task force that still meets regularly.

Mr. Samuelsen said the accident appeared to be a “perfect-storm situation” in which the train operator and the track workers could not see each other because of the curve in the tracks. He said the union would work with the authority to establish new rules for work zones where there are curved tracks.

Mr. Gray had three sons and enjoyed working for the transit system to keep people moving around the city, his wife, Mary Abdul-Laatif, said. He was fascinated by cars, she said, and regularly attended auto shows.

“He liked helping people,” she said. “He liked his co-workers. He was definitely a very good family man and a good father.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 26 of the New York edition with the headline: Transit Worker Is Killed by a Subway Train in Brooklyn. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe